MacTech Blog

Nov 02

IDC: mobility spending to reach $1.72 billion in 2021

Worldwide spending on mobility solutions is forecast to reach $1.72 trillion in 2021, according to new data from IDC (www.idc.com).

Although annual growth is expected to slow over the 2016-2021 forecast period, the research group still expects spending on mobility-related hardware, software, and services to see a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.7%. Worldwide mobility spending will total $1.58 trillion in 2017, an increase of 4.3% over 2016.

The United States will account for nearly one quarter of all mobility spending throughout the forecast, making it the largest geographic market at nearly $392 billion in 2021. Mainland China will be the second largest country in terms of overall spending ($337 billion in 2021), followed by Japan, Brazil, and the UK. The countries that will see the fastest growth in mobility spending over the five-year forecast period will be Venezuela (8.2% CAGR), India (8.0%...

According to the research group, one driver in the market is increase in the digitization of banking services. The increased use of smartphones and tablets has led to a digital reformation in the banking sector. The BFSI sector is one of the prominent users of portable devices (for digital payments and cashless financial transactions). With the growing transaction volumes and the introduction of new digital payment solutions, the banking sector is challenged with the need to keep the magnitude of fraudulent activities low, without compromising on the convenience of the customers, according to Research and Markets.

One trend in the market is NFC-based payments. Near-field communication (NFC) works if two devices are placed within a few centimeters to exchange data. It requires both devices to be equipped with an NFC chip. Apple is partnering with various financial institutions to introduce NFC-powered mobile payments. Before Apple launched NFC mobile payments, this technology...

The global smart fitness devices market is expected to reach USD 29.4 billion by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research (www.grandviewresearch.com). The smart fitness devices market has witnessed a rising demand among the growing urban population in a bid to enhance their fitness goals, adds the research group.

Advantages such as accessing fitness activities data in remote and real-time operations have resulted in an increased penetration of the market. Additionally, there are tremendous opportunities for advancements in the smart fitness devices owing to the increasing usage of smartphones and enhanced internet accessibility, which, in turn, would fuel the growth of smart fitness market. The growing adoption of the smart fitness devices to keep track of sleep, steps, calories, heart rate, and other bodily stats is anticipated to revolutionize the market by 2025, according to...

A new report from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has found that digital advertising spend will grow by 18% CAGR (compound annual growth rate) over the next five years, rising from $184 billion in 2017 to $420 billion in 2022. These figures include advertising spend across mobile, desktop, wearables and DOOH (digital-out-of-home) signage.

The research group predicts that the annual growth of online advertising spend will slow to only 4% globally by 2022, owing to the impact of ad blocking adoption across desktop devices and the increasing usage of mobile devices as the primary means for browsing. According to the research, ad platforms will seek a greater degree of control over the types of ads being blocked through increased involvement in “acceptable ad” initiatives.

Through these initiatives, platforms are beginning to shift focus to encouraging the use of adverts that aren’t...

Worldwide spending on security-related hardware, software, and services is forecast to reach $119.9 billion in 2021, according to new data from IDC (www.idc.com).

With nearly every industry investing in security solutions to meet a wide range of threats and requirements, spending is expected to achieve a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.6% over the 2016-2021 forecast period, notes the research group. Worldwide spending on security products and services will total $83.5 billion in 2017, an increase of 10.3% over 2016.

Worldwide information and communications technology (ICT) spending is set to accelerate over the next five years, thanks to the growth of new technologies including the Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR), and cognitive computing and artificial intelligence (AI).

While the latest International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Black Book forecasts traditional ICT spending to lag GDP growth by 2020, total ICT spending including these new categories will return to growth rates double that of the global economy.

According to IDC (www.idc.com), total ICT spending on traditional IT, telecom services, and new technologies will grow from $4.3 trillion in 2016 to $5.6 trillion by 2021, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6% in constant currency terms. Annual growth will accelerate through the forecast period, from 5.5% in 2017 to 6.5% in 2021, as new technologies...

Worldwide shipments of PCs, tablets and smartphones are predicted to exceed 2.35 billion units in 2018, an increase of 2.0 percent from 2017, according to Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com). This would be the highest year-over-year growth since 2015, notes the research group.

"The misconception persists that the world has gone mobile and relies solely on smartphones. However, our latest online end-user survey shows that users depend just as much on PCs or tablets as they do on smartphones," said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner. "Forty percent of respondents said that they use mostly a PC/tablet for certain daily experiences, such as reading and writing detailed emails or watching videos, while 34%mostly use a smartphone for its convenience while on the move."

He added that users holding onto their PCs for longer remains a major issue for the PC market. In contrast, users continue to replace their...

TripWire (www.tripwire.com), a provider of security and compliance solutions for enterprises and industrial organizations, has announced the results of a survey conducted by Dimensional Research that looked at the need for soft skills in cybersecurity. The survey was conducted in July, and its respondents included 315 IT security professionals at companies with over 100 employees.

According to Tripwire’s survey, 100% of respondents believe soft skills are important when hiring for their security teams. The three most important soft skills cited were analytical thinker (selected by 65%), good communicator (60%) and troubleshooter (59 %). Tied for fourth place, “strong integrity and ethical behaviour” and “ability to work under pressure” were selected by 58 percent of participants.

“The cybersecurity industry should not overlook the soft skills that are needed to build a strong security program,” said Tim...

A new study by Juniper Research (www.juniperresearh.com) has identified the top 10 smart cities in the UK, with London topping the list. Below London are: Edinburgh, Glasgow, Bristol, Manchester, Brighton & Hove, Liverpool, Oxford, Birmingham, and Milton Keynes.

The research group’s analysis was conducted over a range of city indices, including transport, healthcare, public safety, energy and productivity. Scores were calculated according to diverse metrics, including present state-of-play variables (such as congestion and crime levels) alongside smart city rollouts, vision and long-term strategy.

The research found that Scotland’s major cities were strong performers across the board. Edinburgh’s 16 year smart city journey, for example, has allowed the city to learn from mistakes (such as disparate maintenance of systems and control of systems by separate council units) and apply its “One...

IDC has published its first Marketscape assessment of the worldwide Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) market. The Marketscape is focused on global public cloud IaaS providers with mature public cloud IaaS services and revenue in multiple regions worldwide as of calendar year end 2016.

The growing acceptance and use of IaaS has transformed how users procure and manage compute and storage infrastructure, according to the research group. This transcends new as well as traditional enterprise applications, and enterprises are now looking at public cloud IaaS as a viable alternative to capital investments in infrastructure hardware. This has led to increased investments and greater competition among a number of public cloud IaaS providers and heightened strategic focus on their offerings.

IDC says that, today, IaaS is far from a commoditized offering. AWS's early entry and momentum – supported by its pace of feature expansion and innovation – have enabled it to remain in a...

The global mobile and wearable gaming market is a lucrative market that is being driven by the availability of a wide range of games, according to Research and Markets (www.researchandmarkets.com), a rising number of smartphone users, and technological advancement and innovation.

The research group says the future of the gaming market looks promising due to the introduction of VR technology and smartwatch gaming applications across the globe. Involvement of key players such as Apple, Samsung, Facebook, Google, HTC, and other key players has created significant scope for the market. Rising smartphone industries and rising demand for a variety of games across the globe have boosted the market considerably.

The rising entry of new players and rising number of start-ups in the gaming industry will create considerable opportunity for mobile and wearable gaming due to introduction of...

A new report from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has found that annual cost savings derived from the adoption of chatbots in healthcare will reach $3.6 billion globally by 2022, up from an estimated $2.8 million in 2017. This growth will average 320% per annum, as AI (artificial intelligence) powered chatbots will drive improved customer experiences for patients.

Using chatbot systems, patients will be able to access care more quickly and easily, improving access to care and reducing pressure on overworked healthcare systems by ensuring more efficient interactions, according to the research group. Juniper found that, despite trials by, for example, the UK’s National Health Service, chatbot deployment will be dominated by Far East & China over the next five years. Over half of the annual savings realized by chatbots will be attributable to this region in 2022. Owing to the varied...

After two consecutive years of decline, the global tablet applications processor (AP) market returned to growth and registered a 5% year-over-year growth to reach $984 million in the first half of 2017, according to Strategy Analytics (www.strategyanalytics.com)

The research group says Apple, Intel, Qualcomm, MediaTek and Samsung captured the top-five revenue share rankings in the tablet AP market. The market leader Apple gained share and increased its tablet AP revenue share to 37% in in the first half of 2017. Intel and Qualcomm grabbed the number two and three spots with 18% revenue share and 16% share, respectively.

"The global tablet AP market continued to show signs of stabilization from past few quarters with slower year-on-year declines. Despite this encouraging trend, tablet AP vendors have to contend with a significantly smaller overall market in the first half of 2017 compared...

According to Parks Associates' Home Security NUMBERS research, more than 26 million U.S. broadband households will have professionally monitored security by 2021. The research also shows that total annual revenue for professionally monitored security in U.S. households will exceed $14 billion by 2020.

"The residential security industry is changing along many dimensions," Tom Kerber, director of IoT Strategy, said. "The addition of interactive services and home control products has expanded the market and changed the value chain and competitive landscape. Cable and telecom operators have entered the market with security services. New approaches to selling professional monitoring including self-installed solutions and on-demand monitoring services, and service providers are working to expand the market by connecting smart products to monitoring services.”

Security is the strongest driver for smart home adoption. Among U.S. smart home device owners, 37% made this...

Around 65% of tech sector workers use a VPN in the U.S., and NordVPN has experienced a 300% growth in the American market this year. VPN service providers usually experience an increase in new subscribers when a new anti-privacy law is announced or approved. NordVPN expects the number of subscribers to keep growing as the new proposal for “USA Liberty Act” is being revealed – a bill that codifies into law the bulk collection of Americans' personal data.

“Back in March, U.S. Senate reversed FCC privacy regulations, meaning that ISP providers were given the right to collect data without restrictions and without users’ consent,” said Marty P. Kamden, CMO of NordVPN. “ISPs can collect data by monitoring Internet activity and tracking user location through mobile devices. Internet users, as we could see, showed that they were willing to take privacy into their own hands – NordVPN subscriptions starting doubling since the news broke out - and tripled in a few months....

Amazon Go and other ‘invisible payment’ technologies, aimed at reducing or removing physical checkouts from the retail experience, will process over $78 billion in transactions by 2022, up from an expected $9.8 billion this year, a new study from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has found.

These deployments, in single figures today, will reach over 5,000 retail outlets over the next five years as retailers seek to make consumer experiences frictionless and more engaging, the research group adds. Meanwhile, the number of consumers using checkout apps, which allows them to scan their own shopping, will grow from just under 4 million to over 30 million in the same period.

Juniper Research found that the cost and complexity of infrastructure integration will constrain deployments of invisible payments systems in the short term. It argues that initially, the majority of revenues from new...

Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) has announced new research showing that 40% of smart light bulb owners use Amazon Echo or Google Home to control their devices.

"U.S. consumers bought an estimated 14 million voice-controlled smart speakers with personal assistants in 2016," said Dina Abdelrazik, research analyst, Parks Associates. "Voice interfaces supported by personal assistants—like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Microsoft Cortana—seek to connect all the moving parts of a connected lifestyle and are simplifying the user experience. In every vertical, whether it be connected entertainment or the connected car, voice has the ability to unify devices to provide a coherent experience and drive greater adoption of IoT technologies. Simplicity, improved user engagement, and personalization will all lead to a stickier consumer.”

According to International Data Corp., vendor revenue from sales of infrastructure products (server, storage, and Ethernet switch) for cloud IT, including public and private cloud, grew 25.8% year over year in the second quarter of 2017 (2Q17), reaching $12.3 billion.

Public cloud infrastructure revenue grew 34.1% year-over-year and now represents 33.5% of total worldwide IT infrastructure spending at $8.7 billion, up from a 27.0% share one year ago, according to IDC. Private cloud revenue reached $3.7 billion for an annual increase of 9.9%. Total worldwide cloud IT infrastructure revenue has almost tripled in the last four years, while the traditional (non-cloud) IT infrastructure revenue continues to decline and is down 3.8% from a year ago, although it still represents 52.4% of the worldwide share of overall IT revenue at $13.6 billion for the quarter.

Public cloud now represents 70.2% of the total cloud IT infrastructure revenue, according to IDC. The market with...

Software-defined storage (SDS) is one of several new technologies that are rapidly penetrating the IT infrastructure of enterprises and cloud service providers. SDS is gaining traction because it meets the demands of the next-generation datacenter much better than legacy storage infrastructure.

As a result, International Data Corporation (www.idc.com) forecasts the worldwide SDS market will see a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.5% over the 2017-2021 forecast period, with revenues of nearly $16.2 billion in 2021. The research group says that eEnterprise storage spending has already begun to move away from hardware-defined, dual-controller array designs toward SDS and from traditional on-premises IT infrastructure toward cloud environments (both public and private) based on commodity Web-scale infrastructure. SDS solutions run on commodity, off-the-shelf hardware, delivering all the key storage functionality in...

According to a report by Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com), revenues from the global digital games market are estimated to reach the $100 billion milestone by the end of this year.

The report indicates that contrary to previous estimates, the PC market has been reignited thanks to F2P (Free to Play) games. F2P allows gamers to access the game for free. Revenues are then made by purchases within the game, which is known as the freemium model; popularized by mobile games, in order to grow the number of players and accelerate spending. Combined with the continued growth of mobile, Juniper projects that the industry will reach revenues of $132 billion by 2021.

The outlook for the gaming industry is positive, according to the research group Developers are integrating in-game advertising, which is most effective when users are rewarded. For example, watching a short video to provide...

Security breaches seem to have become part of daily living. With the recent Equifax hack and a long string of others to large reputable organizations, how do consumers keep their personal information safe? Apple Federal Credit Union (www.AppleFCU.org) offers important warning signs to help consumers understand if they are susceptible to becoming the victim in the next hack.

“Consumers need to be aware of how they contribute to their own insecurity when it comes to identity theft,” warns Larry Larsen, director of Cyber Security at Apple Federal Credit Union. “Many people are unaware that they are engaging in risky behaviors, and that they are putting themselves at greater risk to be victimized.”

Although the security experts are getting better at identifying this kind of theft, criminals are getting better at coming up with new ways to hack. According to the 2017 Identity Fraud Study, released by Javelin...

More than half of U.S. businesses (53%) have experienced a cyber attack in the past year, according to a survey of business executives released today by The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company (HSB), part of Munich Re.

Of those businesses hacked in the previous 12 months, 72% spent over $5,000 to investigate each cyber-attack, restore or replace software and hardware, and deal with other consequences, the nationwide study conducted by Zogby Analytics for HSB showed.

“In addition to the rising number of cyber attacks and related costs, businesses are increasingly anxious about protecting their data” said Timothy Zeilman, vice president for HSB, a leading provider of cyber insurance. “Data is what drives a business and the loss or corruption of information can be devastating.”
More than a third of the hacked businesses (38) percent spent more than $50,000 to respond: 10% spent $100,000 to $250,000, and 7% more than $250,000. Seven in 10...

The global smart home hub market is expected to cross 3.9 million units, growing at a CAGR [compound annual growth rate] of 5.4% during the forecast period 2016-2022, according to Research and Markets (www.researchandmarkets.com).

The increase in per capita income and the number of dual-income households constitute the basis of increasing spending on innovative devices such as smart home hub, according to the research group. Apart from an increasing demand from developed markets, factors such as the integration of voice-assistance technology in household appliances and enhanced marketing and visibility of these products online have contributed to the growth of the market.

Increasing number of connected devices in households, growing popularity of voice-first technology, increasing investment on IoT [Internet of Things] by vendors and rising push for digital economy in developing...

IDC (www.idc.com) is forecasting the combined augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) headset market to reach 13.7 million units in 2017, growing to 81.2 million units by 2021 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 56.1%.

According to the research group, VR headsets will account for more than 90% of the market until 2019 while AR will account for the rest. In the final two years of forecast (2020—2021) IDC expects AR headsets to experience exponential growth as they capture a quarter of the market by the end of the forecast.

"AR headset shipments today are a fraction of where we expect them to be in the next five years, both in terms of volume and functionality," said Jitesh Ubrani senior research analyst for IDC Mobile Device Trackers. "AR headsets are also on track to account for over $30 billion in revenue by 2021, almost twice that of VR, as most of the AR headsets will carry much higher average...

AnchorFree (www.anchorfree.com), which specializes in consumer online privacy and Internet freedom, has unveiled its latest survey results revealing parents’ sentiments over children’s online privacy and the measures they take to protect it. The responses surveyed more than 600 parents in the U.S. between the ages of 35 and 54 who have children who are under the age of 18.

The study reveals newfound amounts of digitally connected children with more than three out of four parents (76% stating that their children use at least one digital device. However, with a newfound increase in digitally connected children, there is a clear disconnect when it comes to child safety. In fact:

° Three out of five parents (61%) said they were concerned about their child’s online safety

° Sixty-five percent of parents said they would allow children to access a product or app even if they knew it was collecting...

Cupertino handed us a flurry of products this month, and more are on the horizon, hopefully software updates to the software updates.

First up and of greatest interest to the most people are two new versions of the iPhone--the 8 and the X (pronounced "10"). The Spy understands that the numbering is intended to be celebratory of the tenth anniversary of the iPhone's introduction, but skipping a number in the sequence seems strange. What comes next? The 9 or the XI?

And why two models at once--the one a fairly pedestrian (some would say boring) upgrade from the 7, the other a substantial change with many new features?

The more important question is who will buy these? The 8 might be of interest to first time iPhone purchasers and/or those on a slightly limited budget. At a grand US$, the X will appeal to the "upgrade at all costs" crowd--perhaps the more-so than if it were less money. Whether Apple can make sufficient to...

The worldwide infrastructure as a service (IaaS) public cloud market grew 31%in 2016 to total $22.1 billion, up from $16.8 billion in 2015, according to Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com). Amazon was the No. 1 vendor in the IaaS market in 2016, followed by Microsoft and Alibaba, adds the research group.

"The market for cloud services is growing faster than virtually every other IT market today, with much of this growth coming at the expense of the traditional, noncloud offerings," said Sid Nag, research director at Gartner. "The demand for cloud-based IaaS continues on its path of aggressive growth, and the high growth of IaaS is also driving growth in related cloud markets. While platform as a service (PaaS) and software as a service (SaaS) are also exhibiting strong growth, IaaS is expected to show the fastest growth over the next five years.”

The global augmented reality for advertising market to grow at a CAGR of 30.79% during the period 2017-2021, according to Research and Markets (www.researchandmarkets.com).

To calculate the market size, the research group considered the revenue generated from the major stakeholders in the global AR market for advertising. The AR technology combines the VR and image recognition technologies to offer a real-world experience to the customers in the advertising industry.

The AR technology makes the consumer remember an experience or action related to a particular product, and it allows the viewer to manipulate a computer-generated 3D representation of the product. Hence, it is popularly being used in advertising and marketing, notes Research and Markets. It also allows a more interactive experience, possibly leading to an improved retention of the product information.

A new report from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has found that advertisers will lose an estimated $19 billion to fraudulent activities next year, equivalent to $51 million per day. This figure, representing advertising on online and mobile devices, will continue to rise, reaching $44 billion by 2022.

Juniper says that the “Walled Garden,”a closed platform approach whereby advertising platforms restrict the flow of advertising performance data to advertisers and publishers must be abandoned to stimulate transparency between stakeholders. The report found that advertising fraud rates will continue to increase as a result of this, further hindering stakeholder efforts in tackling fraud.

Additionally, the research predicted that AI will be crucial in analyzing the vast amounts of data generated from advertising activities daily and minimizing loss due to fraud. It predicted that...

The global smart home hub market is likely to post a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of more than 5% and 4% in terms of unit shipment and revenue, respectively, during 2016-2022, according to Research and Markets (www.researchandmarkets.com).

One of the reasons for increasing sales of smart home hub in developing as well as developed countries is urbanization, notes the research group. Urbanization has led to the creation of better job opportunities for people, which, in turn, leads to the improvement in their living standards.

Increased per capita income and growth of dual-income households constitute the basis for increasing spend on smart devices worldwide. Further, the cost-effectiveness of smart home hubs offered online (often at discounted prices) is also attracting price-sensitive, new buyers in the market. In addition, improving global economic conditions will drive the...

This summer, the U.S.-based pharmaceutical giant Merck has suffered the Petya ransomware attack that required to hand over a ransom or have its computers remain locked and inaccessible. One month before, the WannaCry ransomware attack devastated many big organizations around the world, including national healthcare organizations such as UK’s National Health Service (NHS).

Last week, cybersecurity experts warned that medical care would suffer from new additional risks they are not prepared to handle. The new threats are coming from the “Internet of Bodies” – IoT devices incorporated into human bodies for medical purposes.

“Healthcare companies are probably the most susceptible to upcoming ransomware attacks – and these attacks will come again, we have no doubts about it,” said Marty P. Kamden, IT security expert and CMO at NordVPN (www.nordvpn.com). “Outdated technology, lack of experience in...

Most app development companies require a pre-development research or “discovery”stage with their clients to clarify project objectives and details and gauge client expectations, according to new survey data from Clutch (www.clutch.co), a B2B (business to business) ratings and reviews firm. Nearly 70% of 102 app development companies surveyed say they mandate this discovery phase, which also helps formulate a realistic cost estimate for an app development project.

App development costs vary and are based on features, timelines, the type of firm employed, and other factors. Businesses can research app development prices online, but experts agree that identifying an accurate estimate is unlikely without completing the discovery stage in collaboration with an app development company.

"It makes sense to only give an exact [price] estimate after the team clearly understands what should be done," says Dmitry Dobritskiy...

A new study from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has found that a surge in shared transport will continue, with driver and passenger numbers seeing substantial growth over the next five years.

The new research forecasts that the number of ride sharing drivers will increase from an estimated 4.3 million in 2017, to 8.6 million by 2022, representing an annual average growth of 14.8%. Juniper found that operators in ride sharing, a market set to represent 47% of sharing economy platform revenues by 2022, are growing established markets through innovation.

“Players including BlaBlaCar, which is expanding its operations through carpooling, and Lyft which is strengthening its partnerships towards the development of autonomous vehicles, are setting their sights on diversifying their business models in order to out-pace rivals,” says research author Lauren Foye.

Worldwide spending on cognitive and artificial intelligence (AI) systems is forecast to reach $57.6 billion in 2021, according to a recent update of the Worldwide Semiannual Cognitive Artificial Intelligence Systems Spending Guide from International Data Corporation (IDC).

With many industries aggressively investing in cognitive and AI solutions, spending is expected to achieve a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 50.1% over the 2016-2021 forecast period, notes the research group. Worldwide spending on cognitive and AI systems will total $12.0 billion in 2017, an increase of 59.1% over 2016.

"Cognitive and artificial intelligence solutions continue to proliferate across all industries resulting in significant growth opportunities," said Marianne Daquila, research manager Customer Insights and Analysis at IDC. "Some of the use cases are very industry specific, such as diagnosis and treatment in healthcare, and in others they are common across multiple industries...

The second quarter of 2017 (Q2 2017) was a buoyant quarter for business smartphones and tablets, as the market showed signs of a rebound, according to Strategy Analytics (www.strategyanalytics.com). Business smartphone shipments grew +14.8% year-over-year (YoY), to reach 107.1 million units in Q2 2017, up 6.1% sequentially from Q1 2017.

Business tablets reached 17.3 million units in the second quarter, a 7.5% increase from Q1 2017 and a 0.7% increase on Q2 2016. Overall, while Q2 2017 showed signs of an uptick on a slower first quarter, suggesting signs of slight improvement for the remainder of the year, the outlook still remains volatile, with longer replacement cycles and GDPR likely to impact the market over the short to medium term, according to Strategy Analytics. The research group says that, through the first half of the year, the pace of business mobile devices shipments appear to be...

"Deep learning is here to stay and expands ML by allowing intermediate representations of the data," said Alexander Linden, research vice president at the research group. "It ultimately solves complex, data-rich business problems. Deep learning can, for example, give promising results when interpreting medical images in order to diagnose cancer early. It can also help improve the sight of visually impaired people, control self-driving vehicles, or recognize and understand a specific person's speech."

A new study by Accenture (www.accenture.com), a global professional services company, finds that, while large financial institutions have made progress applying smart technologies like cloud, biometrics, and big data analytics to their risk management functions, two-thirds (66%) of executives say skills deficiencies are impeding the effectiveness of the function as these technologies evolve.

The study, which is based on a survey of 475 risk management executives in the banking, insurance and capital markets sectors globally, also found that three-quarters of executives (73%) cite an increase in the “velocity, variety and volume” of data as impeding the effectiveness of their risk management functions.

According to the study, firms are struggling to develop the skills necessary to make use of the larger information flows and take advantage of related opportunities.
“As the nature of risk becomes...

TeenSafe, an independent smartphone control and monitoring service for parents, has carried out its first national parent survey on teen distracted driving and technologies and found:

° 40% know a teen involved in a distracted driving accident.

° 91% believe texting and 76% believe using apps or social media are the leading factors in teen distracted driving.

° All respondents would use TeenSafe Control (or other technologies) if it would lower their insurance premiums.

° Almost 68% would install additional hardware in the vehicle to enable the TeenSafe Control App to monitor driver speed, location, etc.

° 77% are unaware of any insurance incentive programs to help prevent distracted driving

"Our goal is to end teen smartphone-related distracted driving," said TeenSafe CEO Ralph Acosta. "The statistics on this issue are unsettling and highlighted in our recent blog post. Our TeenSafe Control App allows parents to disable their teen's phone...

The global mobile phone insurance market is expected to account for $20.5 billion in revenue by the end of 2017, according to ReportsnReports.com.

The market is further expected to grow at a CAGR [compound annual growth rate] of approximately 10% over the next three years, eventually accounting for more than $27 billion in revenue by the end of 2020, adds the research group. Many smartphone makers — including Apple, Samsung, HTC, Acer, Motorola Mobility and Xiaomi — already offer their own branded protection plans across multiple countries, and others are expected to follow suit. By the end of 2020, such branded plans will account for a market worth nearly $4.5 billion, says ReportsnReports.

In an effort to boost the uptake of their mobile phone insurance plans, mobile operators and insurance providers have extensively enhanced their offerings with a number of differentiating features such as multi-device coverage, integrated device security apps, prioritized...

The global mobile phone insurance market is expected to account for $20.5 billion in revenue by the end of 2017, according to ReportsnReports.com.

The market is further expected to grow at a CAGR [compound annual growth rate] of approximately 10% over the next three years, eventually accounting for more than $27 billion in revenue by the end of 2020, adds the research group. Many smartphone makers — including Apple, Samsung, HTC, Acer, Motorola Mobility and Xiaomi — already offer their own branded protection plans across multiple countries, and others are expected to follow suit. By the end of 2020, such branded plans will account for a market worth nearly $4.5 billion, says ReportsnReports.

In an effort to boost the uptake of their mobile phone insurance plans, mobile operators and insurance providers have extensively enhanced their offerings with a number of differentiating features such as multi-device coverage, integrated device security apps, prioritized...

Worldwide PC monitor shipments totaled 28.5 million units in 2Q17, according to IDC. While the shipment total represented a decline of 6.4% over the prior year, some of the market softness can be attributed to a strong second quarter in 2016 (2Q16), presenting the most recently closed quarter with a challenging comparison, adds the research group.

However, market consternations persist. For starters, the 28.5 million units shipped also represents a sequential decline of 1.2%, the first sequential decline for a second calendar quarter since 2014. A sequential decline in a mid-year quarter is typically the outcome of digestion of excess inventory, which is troubling given that 1Q17 also opened in the red.

Still, IDC says that “optimism abounds,” particularly around replacements of old monitors approaching end of life. Strong back-to-school and holiday seasons should prop the market up, and as such, IDC has revised its forecast for the second half of 2017 from -2.8%...

Daniel Research Group (DRG) says three key causal factors will influence the personal computing and communications market over the next five years.

The research group expects desktop and mobile PC shipments to be slightly down this year (-0.6%), it anticipates healthy growth in 2018 (5.3%) before the economic slow-down moderates growth in 2019-2020 (1.6%, 1.9%), followed by a return to higher growth (5.7%) in 2020 as the economy recovers. Over the same period, mobile phones shipments will continue slow growth in line with historic rates, while tablets shipments will fall sharply losing share to mobile PCs and smartphones, says DRG.

"The average age of the personal computing device installed base has reached historic high,” says President Stephen Daniel. “Newer models better meeting users expanding content delivery, capture, and creation needs will replace many of these PCs and Tablets. We expect replacement rates to accelerate for the next two years, flatten during...

According to IDC, the combined consumer and enterprise worldwide wireless local area network (WLAN) market segments grew 2.5% year over year in the second quarter of 2017 (2Q17), finishing at $2.37 billion.

The research group added that the enterprise segment grew 9.4% year over year in 2Q17 to reach $1.48 billion. In the enterprise segment, annualized growth in 2Q17 was comparable to that of 2Q16, when year-over-year growth also registered at 9.4%.

IDC believes that a steady stream of upgrades to the 802.11ac standard as part of the digital transformation (DX) of the enterprise contributed heavily to the 2Q17 growth. The 802.11ac standard now accounts for 84.5% of dependent access point unit shipments and 92.1% of dependent access point revenues, up from 70.9% and 84.7% in 1Q17. This significant sequential jump points to a continued trend of 802.11n obsolescence, which is expected to be nearly complete by the end of 2018.

According to IDC, the total security appliance market saw positive growth in both vendor revenue and unit shipments for the second quarter of 2017 (2Q17).

Worldwide vendor revenues in the second quarter increased 9.2% year over year to $3.0 billion and shipments grew 7.0% year over year to 706,186 units, notes the research group. The trend for growth in the worldwide market driven by the Unified Threat Management (UTM) sub-market continues, with UTM reaching record-high revenues of $1.6 billion in 2Q17 and year-over-year growth of 16.8%, the highest growth among all sub-markets.

The UTM market now represents more than 50% of worldwide revenues in the security appliance market. The Firewall and Content Management sub-markets also had positive year-over-year revenue growth in 2Q17 with gains of 9.5% and 6.4%, respectively. The Intrusion Detection and Prevention and Virtual Private Network (VPN) sub-markets experienced weakening revenues in the quarter with year-over-...

The latest trend gaining momentum in the market is the growing niche market for wrist wearables, according to Research and Markets (www.researchandmarkets.com).

The popularity of wrist wearables has been growing to a large extent in the global smart wearables market, adds the research group. Apart from smartwatches and fitness bands, the vendors in the market are focusing on the development and manufacture of various other wrist wearables, including bracelets and tags.

According to Research and Markets, one of the major drivers for this market is compatibility with other electronic devices. One of the most significant features of a smartwatch is its ability to connect with several devices such as TVs, media players, headsets, smartphones, laptops, point-of-sale devices, and several other devices that have Bluetooth and NFC connectivity capabilities. Currently, smartwatches can be...

Parks Associates has announced new research showing that nearly 40% of U.S. broadband households with an insurance policy would switch providers in order to obtain smart home products as part of a new insurance service.

The research group also notes that more than 80% of those likely to switch insurance providers are also likely to purchase smart home products with prevention features.

"Insurance companies that are prepared to enter the IoT space will be able to capture new market share by luring consumers already in the market for smart home devices," said Brad Russell, senior analyst, Parks Associates. "Some innovative insurers are already offering free or subsidized smart home devices in marketing efforts, but they will need to make investments in order to have the technological capabilities to collect and leverage the data to realize the full value of these devices. Both short- and long-term benefits in new services and customers will make these worthwhile.”

NordVPN (www.nordvpn.com), a VPN service provider, has conducted a National Privacy Test – a survey of almost 5,000 respondents in English-speaking countries, which has determined that, on average, Internet users are not aware of basic online security rules. The average rate of correct answers was 44 out of 100, showing some dangerous gaps in general public’s cybersecurity knowledge.

“We understand that privacy tools can sometimes be overwhelming,” said Marty P. Kamden, CMO of NordVPN. “Therefore, our goal is to find major weaknesses in cybersecurity knowledge of average Internet users and to show them the privacy tools used by experts. Moreover, we want to help people realize that significantly enhancing their security is not that complicated and can be done in few clicks. We have also noticed that even though people seem to know the answers to many questions, they do not apply their knowledge in practice....

According to new data from Parks Associates (www.parksassociates.com) says that nearly 50% of U.S. broadband households are concerned about unauthorized access of to their personal data.

"Operators are transitioning their business models from narrow consumer cases of providing broadband, video, and voice to operating as comprehensive media and technology entities," said Glenn Hower, senior analyst, Parks Associates. "In addition, operators are expanding their definition of security from preventing content piracy to securing big data streams and protecting consumer privacy."

According to Parks Associates, nearly 50% of U.S. broadband households are very concerned that someone will access their connected devices or data without permission. Nearly 75% want to keep tight control over their personal data. By addressing these consumer concerns and allaying fears, operators have the opportunity to...

A major shift is taking place in how enterprises select their financial management applications, with a migration to cloud applications happening faster than expected, according to Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com). A recent survey of senior finance executives by the research group found that by 2020, 36% of enterprises will use the cloud to support more than half of their transactional systems of record.

Gartner surveyed 439 global senior financial executives (including 410 who had implemented cloud strategic and financial corporate performance management solutions) from January through March 2017 to explore their technology perspective, influence of IT, needs and priorities in technology investment.
According to the survey:

° Organizations of all sizes are moving to cloud solutions, such as core financial applications, for transactional systems of record.

In the second quarter of 2017, worldwide server revenue increased 2.8 percent year over year, while shipments grew 2.4% from the second quarter of 2016, according to Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com).

"The second quarter of 2017 produced some growth compared with the first quarter on a global level, with varying regional results," said Jeffrey Hewitt, research vice president at Gartner. "The growth for the quarter is attributable to two main factors. The first is strong regional performance in Asia/Pacific because of data center infrastructure build-outs, mostly in China. The second is ongoing hyperscale data center growth that is exhibited in the self-build/ODM (original design manufacturer) segment.”

x86 servers increased 2.5% in shipments and 6.9% in revenue, according to the research group. RISC/Itanium Unix servers fell globally for the period — down 21.4 percent in shipments and 24.9 percent in vendor...

Software Updates via MacUpdate

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